Review

Chris Letchford once wrote on Scale the Summit’s Facebook page that “the band is a business.” Context of a muddy, dramatic line-up change aside, he’s not wrong. Listening to In a World of Fear conjures up the image of a transaction – a service provided to listeners in exchange for money. If there’s more to the record than this, other than the smug, self-satisfaction it exudes, it’s not at all obvious. Any sense of soul or wit that once came from Scale the Summit’s earlier recordings is wholly absent, much like the band members who seem to have been the only force keeping Letchford’s self-indulgence on leash. With no chaperones, Scale the Summit has thoroughly drowned itself in its own Narcissus’ pool. Normally, a reviewer would single out a track to push the point he or she intends to make, but Letchford’s insistence on cramming as many unrelated, disjointed ideas into each “song” makes any attempt at distinguishing one piece from another needlessly difficult and entirely unworth the effort. You know what to expect if you’ve ever heard a Scale the Summit record. You can expect the gaudy sheen of Letchford’s guitar tone to glamourize the clinical guitar-work, running ad nauseam over the record. Moreover, you can expect improbable bass runs playing out like logic puzzles assembled in-factory for the sole satisfaction of the assembler. In other words, Scale the Summit is just running business as usual – just more stale than ever.

If the conduct of a band member provides context into why the record isn't as good as previous records it's absolutely worth bringing up. Look at it this way: if Chris hadn't alienated the only members of the band with any talent for songwriting, would the ratings be as low as they are?